This US city is putting solar + batteries on 150 homes to cut bills

Ann Arbor is about to test a new way to power homes — and it could become a model for other cities.

Starting this week, energy management company FranklinWH will begin installing solar + battery storage in homes across Ann Arbor, Michigan, as part of a pilot run by the city’s Ann Arbor Sustainable Energy Utility (A2SEU).

A city-run utility tries something new

This is the first time a US city-owned utility has directly bought and deployed residential solar and battery systems to support behind-the-meter energy use – that is, energy generated and used at home.

The pilot’s purpose is to test distributed energy resources (DERs) to determine how they improve grid reliability, reduce energy bills, and expand access to locally generated clean power.